Two light planes, each carrying two people from a flying club in Long Beach, collided over the San Pedro Channel and plunged into the ocean just outside the Long Beach Breakwater on Thursday. There were no signs of survivors. The body of a man about 45 years old was recovered by a Long Beach Fire Department boat shortly after the accident, which occurred about 3:30 p.m. A search continued into the night for the others.

A pilot who was killed Tuesday when his small plane crashed during a landing attempt at Fox Field in Lancaster was working for the California Department of Justice on a drug surveillance operation, authorities said Thursday. Gregory Joseph Fullam, 54, of Fresno, was a civilian pilot assigned to the state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, said Sgt. Bob Pennal of the methamphetamine task force.

A pilot was killed Tuesday in Lancaster while attempting to land his small plane near Fox Field. The blue, single-engine Cessna 182 went down at 10:05 a.m. in a field near 60th Street West and Avenue G, about a mile from the runway, authorities said. National Transportation Safety Board investigators had not determined the cause of the crash late Tuesday. Authorities did not release the identity of the pilot, who apparently was alone in the plane. No one on the ground was injured.

The pilot of a single-engine plane was killed and his passenger was critically injured when the aircraft crashed in a pasture west of the Golden State Freeway in Gorman on Monday, authorities said. The plane went down at 8:11 a.m. about 150 yards from the freeway. Moments before the crash, the plane was flying low and dipping its wings from side to side as though the pilot may have been trying to land on the freeway or on a nearby road.

The pilot of a single-engine plane died and his passenger was in critical condition Monday after the aircraft crashed in a pasture beside the Golden State Freeway, authorities said. The plane went down at 8:11 a.m. in the Grapevine, about 150 yards from the freeway, officials said. Pilot Kevin Weil, 38, of Ridgefield, Wash., and passenger James McBee, 53, of Milwaukie, Ore., were flown by air ambulance to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, where Weil later died.

Two people died when a twin-engine plane crashed in rugged terrain at the edge of the Angeles National Forest on Saturday. Members of a mountain rescue crew found the Piper Seneca at 4:15 a.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy David Smail said. The plane was on a training flight, traveling a distance of just 10 miles between Chino and a small airport in La Verne, said Sheriff's Lt. Robert Crume.

August 28, 2000 | GINA PICCALO and ANTONIO OLIVO, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

An Amsterdam-bound KLM 747 with 429 people aboard blew an engine during takeoff Sunday afternoon, causing a burst of flames and metal debris, and forcing the plane to return to Los Angeles International Airport for an emergency landing, authorities said. No one was hurt. John Hicks, the supervisor of air field operations on duty at the Los Angeles airport, said the airplane appeared to have sucked a bird into an engine on the right side upon takeoff at 4:35 p.m.

Southwest Airlines on Wednesday fired the pilot and co-pilot of a 737 jetliner that overshot the runway during a landing at Burbank Airport in March, although company officials declined to discuss the reason for the dismissals. "All I can do is verify that the pilots have been terminated," Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Linda Rutherford said. "We can't give any other details because the National Transportation Safety Board investigation is still pending."

When Andrew J. Lowe's single engine Piper Malibu crashed into a strip mall on May 28 just moments after takeoff from Hawthorne Airport, it sent airplane owners from Van Nuys to Compton reeling. And not just because every pilot could imagine himself in Lowe's place. Lowe was a member of the California Black Aviation Assn., a tight-knit group of pilots who fly together from airports in Hawthorne, Compton and Van Nuys to places like Cabo San Lucas and Las Vegas.

The last of the Hawthorne residents evacuated Sunday after a plane crash triggered power outages, fires and explosions in their neighborhood were allowed to return to their homes Monday afternoon, authorities said. But a portion of Birch Avenue remained closed to traffic as crews continued repairs on underground electrical and gas lines damaged when a single-engine Piper Malibu crashed on the suburban street, killing the pilot and two passengers.